# Can't Taste Flavours



## FitSoldier (Dec 23, 2015)

Hi everyone, this question is in regards to the flavour profile of cigars in general. 

I've started smoking cigars over an year ago. Up until now I've probably smoked countless hundreds of different cigars, both cheap and higher end. I still haven't developed any taste for cigars. Cigar experts on Youtube review a cigar and state the different flavours of a specific cigar as well as comparing brands, but I can't taste any of it.  It's a little frustrating to me when I've spent money on expensive Cuban cigars. They've become a collectable item in my humidor and sometimes the occasional gift to good friends, teachers, etc.

I was having a conversation with military personnel who smoke cigars as well and was told a lot of flavour claims such as "sweet grass with a hint of elmbark and chocolate finish" are all BS and to ignore that and just enjoy the cigar because it's just tobacco, nothing else. 

I don't mean to offend anyone, cigars taste great. But I really can't taste anything but tobacco. The only difference in taste that I found was that cheaper cigars tend to taste bitter sooner than more expensive sticks (if that makes sense). 

Maybe it's just me. :crying:


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

The tastes I pick up really need to kick me in the head. 30+ years of cigarettes to thank for that. My reviews consist of great, good, bad, and just crap I'll never light up again. I may not taste subtle nuances but I know what I like and can tell good from bad in different scales. 

I don't doubt these guys taste these background "flavors". Just like food , a little spicy to me is gut wrenching to others. Wines are the same to me. Good ,bad , blah.

I've learned a couple tricks to try and pick up flavors. When you hold the smoke in your mouth, try to imagine it's food. What is the flavor you're picking up most and when your exhaling see if you pick anything else up. Think of eating a bowl of chili. First hit tomato and spices, but then after a chew our two it you get the meat and peppers taste. 

Also try retrohaling it's a great way to pick up more flavors.

But as long as YOU enjoy em, that's all that matters. We can't all be taste tester reviewers but we can enjoy the hobby


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## Kidvegas (Oct 17, 2016)

Your not alone Bro. I think picking out certain flavors from a cigars profile probably evolves overtime. I myself am also a Newb in the cigar world. Smoking close to or just over 3 yrs. So i can whole heartedly relate to not tasting the same things that most reviews claim. I've gotten a very good baseline for the type of cigars i like, solely based on the enjoyment factor, Not no so much the exact flavor's of each stick.

Coffee, pepper, cream, sweet and sometimes the leather are the main flavor's i can pick out. Along with spice. Many reviews are based solely on the reviewers perception of flavors ie sweet grass, or elm bark LOL. Personally floral flavor's are another that I've been noticing personally in cigars although i wouldn't try to describe what type. Just a fruit or flower like hint, good enough for me!

Your buddy has a solid point of just enjoying cigars, but IMO figuring out the profiles for your own sake is part of the enjoyment of this hobbie. 

But what the hell do i know I'm a Newb myself and cigars are either good or crap, thats been working for me so far and i for one am having a blast!



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## FTPuff (Sep 14, 2016)

There are some techniques as mentioned like retrohaling and letting the smoke roll around your mouth before exhaling but to a large degree I think it's a person to person thing. 

Smoking cigars has actually helped me understand wine drinkers more. I like wine but I've never been able to have a passion for it and taste the many flavors that are contained in different types, regions and vintages. I envy the people that can truly experience a wine. It's just never been me. 

Cigars for me are a whole different story. I'm able to taste and appreciate the flavor profiles of tobacco and wrappers and appreciate the quality of a finely rolled cigar.

I think it's a personal thing and nothing is right or wrong with what you experience.


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## chadderkdawg (Dec 17, 2014)

This issue I take with all the descriptions that people provide is, how do you know what "Sweet grass" tastes like or "earth" or "leather?" Are people eating these things and then comparing them to a cigar? No, actually people are just trying to make it sound cooler, not sure why, I like smoking cigars because I like the variations in tobacco flavors. You aren't doing anything wrong, keep on keepin on.


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

Earth..ever got dirt in your mouth from football, dirt bikes, etc.

Leather.. Tightening the strings on your baseball glove when you were a kid..

Hay..not everybody has done farm work, but if you did you'd remember the taste.


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## jhblaze1 (Jun 23, 2016)

FitSoldier said:


> Hi everyone, this question is in regards to the flavour profile of cigars in general.
> 
> I've started smoking cigars over an year ago. Up until now I've probably smoked countless hundreds of different cigars, both cheap and higher end. I still haven't developed any taste for cigars. Cigar experts on Youtube review a cigar and state the different flavours of a specific cigar as well as comparing brands, but I can't taste any of it.  It's a little frustrating to me when I've spent money on expensive Cuban cigars. They've become a collectable item in my humidor and sometimes the occasional gift to good friends, teachers, etc.
> 
> ...


It's a lot of baloney really, combined with a bit of truth. I'm really into scotch and it's the same thing there. Tasting notes: Caramelized apricots with a whiff of iodine and sun dried raisins. Notes of withered rose petals and sea brine.

Na, it tastes like whisky. Different whisky has different nuances. None of it tastes much like apricots to me but 90% of scotch tasting notes have the word "apricot" in them.

Same with cigars. Certainly you can pick up on flavors that remind you of coffee and chocolate or earth etc. Plant matter is going to be earthy so earthiness isn't a stretch. Certainly some tobacco can be more or less floral tasting than others. Cubans be be barnyardy and remind you of hay. But some of the nonsense that people come out with is mind boggling. This cigar has notes of mid summer grass clippings layered beneath toasted toffee with the delicate sweetness of candied plums. K bro.


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## WABOOM (Oct 15, 2015)

chadderkdawg said:


> This issue I take with all the descriptions that people provide is, how do you know what "Sweet grass" tastes like or "earth" or "leather?" Are people eating these things and then comparing them to a cigar? No, actually people are just trying to make it sound cooler, not sure why, I like smoking cigars because I like the variations in tobacco flavors. You aren't doing anything wrong, keep on keepin on.


It tastes like it smells. 
-I don't describe flavors just to make it sound cool


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## blackrabbit (Jan 29, 2017)

I can definitely taste different flavors, but not everything that the cigar reviewers talk about. Tobacco, chocolate, sweetness, leather, spice, and pepper (I don't distinguish too much between pepper types) are the main flavors I pick up. There is also creaminess which is sort of a flavor/texture. Also chewiness, which is a texture mouth feeling. I have tasted leather, dirt, earth of various types, woods, grass and hay growing up so I do know what most of that stuff tastes like as well. I was often running around the woods, meadows and farm cornfields growing up and I still will pick up random grass straws when hiking and chew on them a bit. I also chewed on paper and pen caps in school but don't wish to taste them again. Growing up it seems natural to want to taste things and I am glad my parents were not germaphobes and let us kids play unsupervised so we could learn and grow. It seems a lot of kids these days are overly protected and will probably have undeveloped slightly compromised immune systems. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!


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## Dentedcan (Jan 15, 2016)

Been smoking for the same amount of time and am in the same boat as you. I can get basic earth,hay,almond paste type flavors. 

I'm still waiting on a sea salted cherry dark chocolate profile for a stick. Then I'm just gonna eat it

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## acitalianman13 (Jun 4, 2014)

Hey I got a question myself, at which humidity level will you get the most flavor from a cigar ?


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## Joe Sticks (May 31, 2016)

As someone newly back into cigars, I don't pick up all the subtle distinctions either. Few of them, most likely. But, I'm not gonna question that some people might. - - It's probably like so many things, experience and personal talent in that area likely makes a difference. - - For fun - I've dabbled playing musical instruments, enjoyed various beers, and grown & ate various hot peppers. Even as a complete newbie amateur, getting involved in these activities has increased my ability to notice things I didn't notice before. - - 
I used to date a woman who had been a professional singer and musician. (She had also sung opera). This lady could hear things, including in music, that I could not. And sometimes there would be sounds in music that would bother her to the point that listening to it for too long would give her a an actual headache. - - Our dogs act like they hear sounds when there are none, too. Personally, I think they're just faking it. 


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

WABOOM said:


> It tastes like it smells.
> -I don't describe flavors just to make it sound cool


There ya go folks! There is always the debate of what cigars taste like and one doesn't have to stuff a pigskin into your mouth to say it tastes a bit like pigskin or anything else that one derives when smoking any cigar. It bothers me to read that others say "you can't taste certain tastes" when it comes to cigars...that's nonsense. As long as one has exposure to something... they have solidified that aroma/taste into their brain and can compare that to whatever substance they come across. A sense of taste becomes a learned palate that hinges upon the areas of ones tongue ( taste buds ) and their sense of smell and a combination of both. The more you expose yourself to both areas the more keen your taste becomes. Just like an infant learns to associate tastes over time they incorporate this into their taste profile and are able to distinguish certain tastes because of actual taste/aroma. By the age of 8 it is said that your tastes have peaked and by the age of 20 it starts to decline but understand that inside the human nasal passages there are several million receptors that are sensitive to smell from the olfactory receptors. This becomes our own unique history of equating smells and aromas ...particularly with cigars.

Conversely there are those who have trouble associating tastes or have a diminished capacity for taste/aroma and are the ones who tend to say what some have said on here....that comparing taste/aroma is BS....it isn't BS...most of the time it's training your taste buds quite like a wine sommelier does. Can everybody do this.....no because some taste buds with people aren't the same and you only know what you know accordingly. If you can't taste flavors then it might be something else in your system that is problematic...a change in diet, new medications or just getting older will have one lose their ability to distinguish flavors because of the loss of taste buds. If this is a life long condition then that's a horse of a different color. They say if you have been losing your sense of taste in the last 5 years or so then that is a medical condition which has been associated with death...not sure how they figure this at all. Anyhow....this ends the class on taste and cigars as there'll be a test next Thursday on this with an essay for extra credit on...." you don't have to eat crap for it to smell like it."


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## jhblaze1 (Jun 23, 2016)

I think some people just tag words on to try to describe the nuances. The other night I smoked a Padron 90th maduro and a half hour later smoked a 1964 maduro. it's not even nuanced with these two sticks, they're worlds apart, but even still it's not easy for me to really put into words exactly what is different about them. Smoked alone, either one can be described as hitting on chocolate and earth and pepper but at the same time they taste nothing alike.


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## ivandrocco (Feb 17, 2017)

I've always had problems with subtle tasting, hopefully it will come with time regarding cigars.


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## scott1256ca (Jan 4, 2017)

I asked a smoking buddy about his ability to pick out some flavours vs. my NOT being able to pick out many. He is a wine aficionado and a very good cook, and to paraphrase his response, "We are probably tasting a lot of the same things, I can just pick out the individual flavours more easily". He also mentioned he developed some of that because of wine and food tasting courses he has gone on where they do get you to taste various things by themselves and try to then start picking out the flavours in a wine or food dish. Most of us don't go around putting cumin or curry on our tongues to see what it tastes like. You know it from having it in several dishes.
That doesn't mean you don't like a certain cigar more than another of equal strength. So I tend to agree with him, that I can't pick out the various flavours, and I can't with food either, but I can tell which cigars I like and which I don't.

As far as the retrohale: Having tried it a few times, it does help pick out flavours, but I also discovered that no matter how much I might like the cigar I do NOT like retrohaling. So to hell with that! I'll smoke the cigar without retrohaling, and just enjoy it without being able to categorize the flavours.
YMMV!


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## garublador (Jun 5, 2014)

As others have said, it's a combination of natural aptitude and training. Some people are just better at it from the get go and some spend a lot of time learning to pick out flavors. Some have both. Personally, I can taste that different cigars taste different and I can pick out one or two main flavors but the rest are too meddled together for me to pick out individually. I have complete confidence that some people have more natural ability and have spent more time training themselves to pick out flavors better than I can. You can even buy kits to try to determine if you're a "supertaster" or not, so the natural ability part is somewhat measurable.

I think of it like trying to talk to someone in a loud place. Personally, once it gets too loud I have trouble holding a conversation. I seem to drop out earlier than most of my friends. I have more trouble distinguishing between my friends' voices and all the other noises. Most of the rest of my friends can filter out the outside noise better and talk even though the music is loud and everyone else in the bar is yelling. Using this analogy, if a noise (flavor) is "loud" enough compared to other noises, I can pick it out. Everything else blends together as some unique sounding noise.


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## lex61 (Nov 18, 2016)

Add me to the list of those that can't distinguish subtle flavors very well. It must be a combination of individual sensitivity and the cigar as I've very clearly had chocolate and coffee flavors be very pronounced. Recently I smoked one and concluded I was tasting the leather I've seen in so many descriptions, and when I went back to read other reviews of that cigar, leather was indeed one of the flavors listed. A proud moment! 

Along these lines, I also enjoy a good craft beer. Again though, I don't use descriptive adjectives to describe what I'm tasting. Coconut porter? Sure, easy enough, but others not so much. I am able to decide without that what I do and don't like though. I played golf a while back with a guy whose job is a beer taster at Coors. I asked what does it take to get a job like that? He said the first requirement is a sensitive palate. Beyond that, he went through a lot of training to fine tune that sensitivity. The point being, is an inherent sensitive palate was the first prerequisite.

As long as you enjoy it, I guess it doesn't matter what flavors it has.


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## konut (Jan 16, 2016)

Been smoking cigars for almost 50 years and I don't get it either. That's why I don't do cigar "reviews". Thing is, I was a baker for 30 years and was always very good at tasting the particular ingredients in baked goods and food with an ability that my chef friends were impressed with. I don't worry about it. I know what I like.


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## Scap (Nov 27, 2012)

I've got chronic sinus issues, so I blame that on my lack of ability to pick out subtleties; however, I can pick out chocolate, cookie, leather, and other flavors on the sweeter end if I'm not torching my tongue with a whiskey.


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## poppajon75 (Apr 10, 2016)

I can pick up familiar flavors. It's not that the cigars taste just like what I describe when I post but, more of a resemblance of what my memory tells me it tastes like. I don't think there's a right or, wrong here when it comes to taste in a cigar. Hell, if you say you taste jellyfish who would I be to say you don't.


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## Mario D (Feb 26, 2017)

I can definitely pick up on some basic flavors. Chocolate (think dark chocolate), pepper, earth, etc. and I also get creaminess. I worked briefly as a brewer at a local Craft Brewer and part of the job was sampling beer (terrible I know). The easiest way to "find" a flavor is to try to focus on one flavor at a time. If you can't taste it go for a different flavor. Don't forget, smell has a lot to do with what you can taste.


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## Bird-Dog (Oct 16, 2009)

chadderkdawg said:


> This issue I take with all the descriptions that people provide is, *how do you know what "Sweet grass" tastes like or "earth" or "leather?*" Are people eating these things and then comparing them to a cigar? No, actually people are just trying to make it sound cooler, not sure why, I like smoking cigars because I like the variations in tobacco flavors. You aren't doing anything wrong, keep on keepin on.





WABOOM said:


> *It tastes like it smells.*
> -I don't describe flavors just to make it sound cool





Mario D said:


> I can definitely pick up on some basic flavors. Chocolate (think dark chocolate), pepper, earth, etc. and I also get creaminess. I worked briefly as a brewer at a local Craft Brewer and part of the job was sampling beer (terrible I know). The easiest way to "find" a flavor is to try to focus on one flavor at a time. If you can't taste it go for a different flavor. Don't forget, *smell has a lot to do with what you can taste*.


 @chadderkdawg - When we talk about non-edibles like leather, or grass, or earth in cigar flavors, it's a taste that reminds us of the smell of those things that we're usually really referencing.


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## StogieNinja (Jul 29, 2009)

Get into your spice cabinet and sniff everything. Do the same for all the bulk ingredients in your pantry. You'll eventually start making connections. 

Retrohale often. If it's too harsh, start by blowing ALL the smoke out of your mouth, then pushing just air through your nose immediately after. Even that will be enough to get you more flavor, and you can slowly work up to say the last 5% of smoke out your nose. That will open up new worlds. 

Or maybe you just have a flat palate. Lots of people do, no problem there just enjoy what you get! If you enjoy cheaper sticks as much as more expensive ones, you get to save some money!


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## wulfmang (Sep 5, 2016)

Sometimes I smoke two of the same, the first is like a primer. Kind of like smoking a cigarette, the first is terrible and weird, but the following smokes you taste. Let it set in the humidor for a month, let set out for 10 mins before smoking.

Cause sometimes, scotch taste like bandaids. lol


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